THE  PLAGE 

OF  THE 

(SSfllpK! 

lip  YOUNG  MEN’S  CHRISTIAN 
H||'  ASSOCIATION 

IN  THE 

NEW  RURAL  AWAKENING 


Kenyon  L.  Butterfield 


BHMERSITY  OF  JLUWOIS  LIBRARY 

THE  PLAGE  9 

OF  THE 

YOUNG  MEN’S  CHRISTIAN 
ASSOCIATION 

IN  THE 

NEW  RURAL  AWAKENING 


Kenyon 

President  Massachusetts  Agricultural  College 


> 

L.  Butterfield 


Sfegouatton  Crests 

124  East  28th  Street,  New  York 
1917 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2017  with  funding  from 

University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign  Alternates 


https://archive.org/details/placeofyoungmensOObutt 


Al  n  b  tsnt  01  <^cJ  b!  ^  LT 


The 


Place  of  the  Young  Men’s 
Christian  Association 
in  the  New  Rural 
Awakening 


From  the  days  of  Washington,  Ameri¬ 
can  agriculture  has  received  constant  and 
intelligent  attention  from  the  Government 
and  from  thoughtful  men.  A  system  of 
agricultural  education  has  been  de¬ 
veloped,  unequalled  in  any  other  coun¬ 
try  for  inclusiveness  of  design  and 
generosity  of  financial  support.  The 
United  States  Department  of  Agricul¬ 
ture  is  doubtless  the  largest  government 
organization  in  the  world  devoted  to 
agricultural  affairs.  Both  national  and 
state  legislation  have  reflected  the 
farmers'  interests  and  needs.  Mean¬ 
while,  too,  a  vast,  rich '  continent  has 
been  subdued  to  the  plow.  Nowhere 
else  can  we  find  so  many  yeoman  farm- 
'  ers  with  so  high  a  standard  of  life ;  no- 
£  where  so  free  a  movement  from  the 
if^nrier  class  to  the  ranks  of  professional 
/life  and  public  leadership. 

3  But  we  have  discovered  serious 
( S  deficiencies  in  our  agriculture  and  coun- 


j 


try  life.  We  have  found  that  our  pro¬ 
ductivity  per  acre  is  low;  that  our  sys¬ 
tem  of  distributing  farm  products  is 
costly  and  unjust  both  to  producer  and 
consumer;  that  too  much  of  the  best 
farm  blood  flows  permanently  to  the 
city;  that  soil  fertility  is  often  quickly 
depleted ;  that  transient  tenancy  is 
alarmingly  increasing;  that  the  scarcity 
of  farm  labor  is  driving  farmers  from 
their  occupation ;  and  that  educational 
and  social  advantages  often  lag  behind 
business  success  and  urban  standards. 

The  gradual  recognition  of  such  rural 
defects  as  these  has,  in  very  recent 
years — only  a  half-dozen  years,  in  fact 
— molded  a  public  opinion  that  has  now 
reached  a  constructive  stage — or  one 
that  at  least  demands  a  plan  for  rural 
amelioration.  This  public  opinion  is  the 
possession  of  both  the  rural  and  the 
urban  groups.  It  is  not  always  intelli¬ 
gent,  full-orbed,  wide-visioned ;  but  it 
is  insistent,  and  therefore  calls  for  wise 
leadership,  sane  counsel,  and  immediate 
but  fundamental  plans.  This  public 
opinion  is,  I  take  it,  “the  new  rural 
awakening/’ 

Inherent  in  this  “new  rural  awaken¬ 
ing”  is  the  desire  to  utilize  social  ma¬ 
chinery,  organized  effort,  for  making 
plans  and  for  carrying  them  into  effect. 

4 


Old  agencies  are  being  rejuvenated  and 
new  ones  created  for  this  purpose.  One 
of  these  agencies,  neither  worn  by  age 
nor  yet  untried,  is  the  County  Work 
Department  of  the  Young  Men’s  Chris¬ 
tian  Association.  Strong  in  the  confi¬ 
dence  of  a  real  mission,  conscious  of 
proved  powers,  alert  in  aggressive 
leadership,  and  yet  thoughtful  of  funda¬ 
mental  values,  this  organization  pauses 
to  ask  the  question :  “Are  we  finding 
our  place  in  this  great,  new,  significant 
rural  awakening  in  America  ?” 

To  attempt  an  adequate  answer  to 
this  frank  questioning  of  the  Associa¬ 
tion  I  think  we  must  first  press  a  little 
further  the  query — What  is  the  real 
purpose  of  “the  new  rural  awakening”? 
We  have  defined  it  broadly;  what  is  its 
inner  meaning?  This  purpose,  this 
meaning,  has  several  elements.  First  of 
all,  there  is  a  new  appreciation  by  city 
people,  especially  by  important  business 
men,  of  agriculture  as  a  national  asset, 
to  be  cherished  on  statesmanlike  lines. 
Again,  urban  consumers  have  come  to 
see  that  the  food  problem  is  a  pressing 
one  and  is  in  the  hands  of  the  farmers. 
Moreover,  the  farmers  themselves, 
although  in  an  era  of  relative  prosperity, 
realize  that  they  have  come  to  the  end 
of  a  characteristic  epoch  in  American 

5 


agriculture  and  are  entering  upon  a  new 
chapter  which  presents  new  problems. 
There  is,  furthermore,  a  general  recog¬ 
nition  that  concerted  effort  is  necessary 
in  order  to  remedy  the  defects  of  our 
agriculture  and  rural  life  and  to  meet 
the  twentieth  century  farm  questions. 

There  is  also  a  new  definition  of  the 
problem  of  rural  life.  This  problem,  in 
a  sense,  is  defined  by  the  defects  already 
mentioned.  From  .the  public  point  of 
view  it  is  a  question  of  food  supply,  of 
conservation  of  soil  resources,  and  of 
the  preservation  of  the  social  and  eco¬ 
nomic  status  of  the  farming  class;  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  individual  it 
means  greater  business  success  for  the 
mass  of  individual  farmers  and  a  con¬ 
stantly  improving  type  of  life  in  farm 
communities.  Thus  we  now  recognize 
that  the  rural  problem  is  very  inclusive 
and  exceedingly  complex,  and  must  be 
approached  cooperatively  on  large  lines. 
In  fine,  “the  new  rural  awakening”  con¬ 
sists  in  a  general  recognition  of  the 
existence  of  a  real  rural  problem,  sig¬ 
nificant  to  national  wealth  and  welfare, 
and  meaning  nothing  more  nor  less  than 
the  task  of  planning  and  of  securing,  by 
collective  effort,  a  higher  and  better 
rural  civilization. 

I  have  said  a  rural  problem  advisedly. 

6 


No  phase  of  “the  new  rural  awakening” 
is  more  significant  than  the  admission 
that  there  is  a  rural  problem.  We  must 
think  of  it  as  a  unit.  This  is  fundamen¬ 
tal.  But,  of  course,  while  we  must 
solve  it  as  a  whole,  after  all,  practically 
speaking,  we  are  obliged  to  attack  it  at 
many,  many  points ;  for  it  has  many 
elements.  It  is  far  too  big,  too  complex 
to  be  met  by  any  one  simple  method. 

It  may  clarify  our  thought  as  to  the 
task  of  solving  the  rural  problem  if  we 
break  the  question  into  groups  of  ques¬ 
tions.  I  wish  to  suggest  three  main 
groups  of  rural  problems  that  must  be 
met,  I  believe,  by  organized  effort;  at 
any  rate,  they  are  classes  of  questions 
that  the  individual  farmer  must  face. 

i.  The  first  group  includes  the  prob¬ 
lems  of  farm  improvement.  How  can 
we  improve  the  soil?  How  can  we  have 
better  breeds  of  plants  and  animals? 
How  can  we  secure  better  systems  of 
farm  management?  How  can  we  bet¬ 
ter  protest  against  the  ravages  of  plant 
and  animal  diseases  and  pests?  These 
questions  all  have  a  vital  bearing  on 
our  ability  to  produce  the  maximum 
amount  from  our  soil.  But  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  consumer,  as  well  as 
from  that  of  the  farmer,  we  have  not 
yet  solved  the  farm  problem  when  we 

7 


have  increased  productivity;  so  we  find 
naturally  a  second  group,  namely: 

2.  The  problems  of  marketing  and 
exchange.  How  can  the  farmer  get 
money  in  order  to  carry  on  his  business 
to  advantage?  This  involves  the  ques¬ 
tion  of  rural  credit.  How  can  he  best 
buy  his  supplies  ?  How  can  he%  best  sell 
his  products?  In  America  we  have 
heretofore  relied  largely  on  the  ability 
of  the  individual  to  settle  these  ques¬ 
tions  for  himself;  in  Europe  they  have 
found  it  necessary  to  do  these  things 
collectively,  and  we  believe  now  that 
the  American  farmers  will  soon  be 
forced  to  the  use  of  the  same  method. 
Here  are  matters  of  the  highest  impor¬ 
tance.  But  we  have  not  yet  exhausted 
the  questions  that  arise  in  connection 
with  the  development  of  our  agriculture, 
and  there  comes  to  mind  a  third  group 
of  problems  that  may  be  called: 

3.  The  problems  of  the  community 
life.  This  group  comprises  such  ques¬ 
tions  as  the  efficiency  of  rural  govern¬ 
ment;  the  influence  of  the  rural  home; 
the  enrichment  of  the  rural  school ;  the 
leadership  of  the  rural  church;  the  at¬ 
tainment  of  adequate  social  and  recre¬ 
ative  facilities;  the  maintenance  of  good 
morals;  and  the  beautification  of  home¬ 
steads  and  roadsides. 

8 


Of  course  this  is  not  absolutely  a 
scientific  grouping.  I  have  not  men¬ 
tioned  at  all  the  great  scientific  ques¬ 
tions  that  are  the  subject-matter  of 
costly  research  by  the  nation  and  by 
states.  Nor  have  I  included  certain 
questions  of  large  import  such  as  tax¬ 
ation,  the  tariff,  tenantry,  and  financial 
systems,  in  their  influence  on  the  busi¬ 
ness  of  agriculture.  I  have  just  made  a 
grouping  for  the  purpose  of  defining  a 
little  more  clearly  what  is  ahead  of  us 
if  we  are  to  meet  this  demand  of  “the 
new  rural  awakening”  for  a  construc¬ 
tive  plan. 

What  is  the  place  of  social  institu¬ 
tions  generally  in  meeting  such  issues 
as  we  have  raised? 

At  the  outset  we  recognize  two  main 
classes  of  institutions — those  managed 
by  Government  at  public  expense,  and 
those  wholly  voluntary  and  supported 
at  private  expense.  We  are  not  called 
upon  here  to  discuss  at  any  length  the 
function  of  Government  in  helping  to 
solve  the  rural  problem,  because  we 
recognize  that  an  institution  like  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association  has 
no  purpose  to  do  work  that  the  Govern¬ 
ment  is  doing.  At  the  same  time,  even 
in  Association  work,  it  is  necessary  to 
have  a  clear  notion  as  to  where  the 


9 


work  of  the  Government  shall  cease  and 
where  reliance  must  be  placed  upon 
voluntary  effort.  Let  me  then  state 
rather  arbitrarily  my  present  attitude 
toward  the  work  of  the  Government, 
national,  state,  or  local.  The  Govern¬ 
ment  certainly  has  an  educational  func¬ 
tion.  We  are  committed  to  publicly  sup¬ 
ported  education,  even  of  a  technical 
character.  It  is  also  obvious  that  the 
Government  must  administer  certain 
laws  relative  to  agriculture.  We  are 
not  yet  quite  sure  of  the  extent  to  which 
Government  may  go  in  attempting  to 
correlate  the  various  activities  on  be¬ 
half  of  the  agricultural  movement; 
though  personally  I  believe  that  Gov¬ 
ernment  may  and  should,  at  least  as  a 
temporary  leader,  seek  to  correlate  and 
ally  the  various  agencies  for  rural  prog¬ 
ress. 

Is  there  a  limit  beyond  which  the 
Government  may  not  go  in  these  mat¬ 
ters  of  education,  administration,  and 
correlation  ?  This  much  seems  clear : 
The  Government  should  investigate,  for 
the  purpose  of  discovering  facts  and 
principles ;  it  should  interpret  these 
facts  and  principles  in  the  light  of  exist¬ 
ing  need;  it  should  inform  the  masses 
of  the  people  of  the  significance  of  these 
facts  and  principles  in  their  application 


10 


to  existing  need;  it  should  stand  ready 
to  advise  as  to  the  way  in  which  these 
facts  and  principles  may  best  be  applied ; 
and  it  may  even  go  so  far  as  to  demon¬ 
strate  its  faith  in  its  own  advice,  and 
thus  give  objective  illustration  of  the 
way  in  which  truth  may  be  made  appli¬ 
cable  to  practical  conditions.  But  the 
Government  may  not  participate  in  agri¬ 
culture.  It  cannot  run  a  man’s  farm 
for  him;  it  should  not  try  to  run  the 
farmers’  collective  business  for  them, 
nor  to  manage  a  rural  community. 

I  like  to  think  that  this  three-fold 
work  of  the  Government  in  adminis¬ 
tration  of  laws,  education,  and  correla¬ 
tion  applies  to  the  entire  range  of  the 
problems  of  agriculture  and  country  life, 
and  may  be  just  as  helpful  in  solving 
all  problems  as  in  solving  any  one  prob¬ 
lem.  But  I  am  bound  to  say  that,  prac¬ 
tically,  there  are  serious  limitations  to 
governmental  activity.  For  example, 
how  far  can  the  Government  go  in  its 
advisory  work  with  reference  to  the 
country  church?  As  a  practical  matter, 
would  a  Government  investigation  of 
the  influence  of  the  tariff  on  agriculture 
be  regarded  as  unprejudiced,  no  matter 
what  party  was  in  power?  Then  there 
are  limitations  as  to  the  amount  of 
money  available  for  Government  work. 


ii 


We  are  soon  to  find  in  our  agricultural 
program  that  it  is  impossible  for  the 
Federal  Government  or  for  the  states  to 
appropriate  sufficient  money  to  do  all 
that  could  legitimately  be  done  by  the 
Government,  and,  consequently,  that 
more  and  more  reliance  must  be  placed 
upon  local  and  private  support  and  ac¬ 
tivity.  Moreover,  it  is  well  for  farmers 
to  manage  their  own  affairs.  In  the  long 
run  they  will  do  it  better  than  anybody 
else.  It  strengthens  them  as  a  class. 
The  Government  can  and  should  do  what 
neither  individuals  nor  voluntary  or¬ 
ganizations  can  achieve.  Speaking 
broadly,  the  Government  should  seek  to 
stimulate  the  maximum  of  activity  and 
self-management  on  the  part  of  farmers, 
both  individually  and  through  associated 
effort. 

Turning  now  to  these  associated  or 
voluntary  efforts  for  the  betterment  of 
agriculture  and  country  life,  we  find  a 
multitude  of  agencies.  Some  of  these 
agencies  are  of  primary  importance, 
such  as  the  home,  the  church,  and  the 
school.  Others  are  evidently  supplemen¬ 
tary  in  character,  such  as  the  village 
improvement  society,  the  horticultural 
society,  etc.  Apparently,  as  time  goes 
on  these  voluntary  associations  will 
group  themselves  quite  naturally  into 


12 


agencies  chiefly  for  farm  improvement, 
or  chiefly  for  marketing  and  exchange, 
or  chiefly  for  the  betterment  of  com¬ 
munity  life.  Of  course,  there  will  be 
some  associations,  like  the  great  farm¬ 
ers’  organizations,  that  will  cover  more 
than  one  field,  but  there  will  surely  be  a 
tendency  toward  a  pretty  sharp  divi¬ 
sion  of  labor  among  these  institutions. 
I  think  we  will  all  agree  that  the  Young 
Men’s  Christian  Association  is  not  im¬ 
mediately  concerned  with  the  problems 
of  farm  improvement,  nor  indeed  with 
the  problems  of  marketing  and  ex¬ 
change.  It  recognizes  that  a  permanent 
rural  community  life  can  be  built  only 
on  a  thoroughly  developed  farm  produc¬ 
tivity  and  a  sound  and  economical 
method  of  distribution  of  products.  But 
its  especial  task  is  not  primarily  to  for¬ 
ward  these  technical  interests ;  it  is 
essentially  a  community  life  agency. 

And  now  at  length  we  face  the  real 
question.  Does  the  County  Young 
Men’s  Christian  Association  desire  to 
serve  as  a  general  community-life 
agency,  or  has  it  a  specialized  task?  Is 
it  not  fair  to  approach  the  answer  to 
this  question  by  calling  attention  to  the 
very  name  of  the  Association  ?  It  is 
first  of  all  a  voluntary  Association,  seek¬ 
ing  to  band  people  together;  it  is  not  a 
13 


public  agency,  nor  supported  at  public 
expense;  it  is  independent  of  state  con¬ 
trol;  it  evidently  seeks  a  function  that 
lies  outside  of  state  effort.  Moreover, 
the  idea  of  associated  or  cooperative 
purpose  and  effort  is  emphasized.  The 
comradeship  of  like-minded  men  for 
meeting  a  great  need  is  encouraged. 
In  the  second  place,  it  is  an  Association 
of  young  men;  it  seeks  to  band  together 
boys  and  young  men.  Older  men  may 
help  mightily;  but  the  object  is  to  help 
boys  and  young  men.  It  is  essentially 
religious;  it  marches  under  the  Chris¬ 
tian  flag;  it  inculcates  the  Christian  mo¬ 
tive;  it  proclaims  itself  a  regiment  of 
the  Christian  army. 

There  are  many  questions  that  arise 
in  this  connection.  What  type  of  work 
is  to  be  done  in  this  outreach  for  btiys 
and  young  men  under  the  Christian 
banner?  Is  it  work  that  some  other 
institutions  ought  to  do,  or  is  it  work 
that  none  other  can  do?  Is  the  Asso¬ 
ciation  religious  only  in  the  narrow 
sense,  or  does  it  seek  to  develop  the 
religious  motive  in  all  human  activity 
in  the  country  ?  Again,  how  does  it 
reconcile  its  work  with  that  of  the 
Church  or  of  the  Sunday  school?  Has 
it  not,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  an  even  larger 
aim  growing  out  of  a  fundamental  rural 
14 


necessity?  Should  it  not  seek  to  be  the 
great  rural  clearing  house  and  attempt 
to  integrate  or  coordinate  all  local  rural 
activities  ? 

The  County  Young  Men’s  Christian 
Association,  in  seeking  to  take  its  place 
in  “the  new  rural  awakening,”  must  first 
of  all  define  its  work.  I  suggest  this 
definition:  “The  special  mission  of  the 
County  Young  Men’s  Christian  Asso¬ 
ciation  is,  by  means  of  helpful  comrade¬ 
ship  and  inspiring  leadership,  to  influ¬ 
ence  boys  and  young  men  living  in  the 
country,  on  behalf  of  a  complete  man¬ 
hood  motived  by  the  Christ  spirit.”  The 
Association  will  teach  that  this  complete 
manhood  can  be  secured  only  by  a 
growth  that  comes  when  one’s  play, 
one’s  toil,  one’s  study,  one’s  thinking  are 
directed  by  and  suffused  with  the  spirit 
of  self-control  and  of  loving  service.  It 
will,  in  other  words,  seek  to  relate  the 
country  boy  both  to  his  special  task  of 
individual  character-building  and  to  his 
problem  of  assisting  in  the  work  of 
rural-community-building.  The  boy  or 
young  man  is  to  be  brought  to  see  that 
these  fundamental  issues  of  life  must  be 
met  under  the  inspiration  of  the  reli¬ 
gious  motive,  and  must  be  solved  on 
Christian  principles  and  by  Christian 
methods. 


IS 


Hence  the  Association  will  direct  its 
efforts  to  the  youth  of  the  countryside. 
These  will  be  asked  to  band  themselves 
with  others,  in  order  that  they  may  be 
helped  to  work  out  this  dual  problem 
of  character-building  and  community¬ 
building  on  the  highest  possible  lines. 
The  conventional  division  of  effort  and 
emphasis  will  be  followed — that  is,  the 
development  of  the  physical,  the  intel¬ 
lectual,  and  the  spiritual.  But  the  great 
effort  will  be  to  try  to  bring  the  boy 
and  young  man  to  see  that  religion  is 
a  life  and  not  a  doctrine;  that  it  is  an 
attitude  and  not  a  garment;  that  it  is 
a  motive  and  spirit  and  not  an  artificial 
classification  of  men;  and  consequently 
that  all  life  can  be  made  religious.  The 
splendid  historic  emphasis  of  the  Asso¬ 
ciation  upon  leadership-training  will, 
therefore,  be  forever  enforced  because 
of  a  fundamental  belief  in  the  power 
of  personality,  and  an  abiding  faith  in 
the  influence  of  allegiance  to  persons — 
an  allegiance  that  culminates  in  a  per¬ 
petual  and  conscious  loyalty  to  the 
crowning  Person  of  all.  The  Associa¬ 
tion  will  regard  itself  not  as  a  primary 
social  institution,  but  as  supplementary; 
not  as  intended  to  take  the  place  of 
home,  school,  or  church,  but  as  perform¬ 
ing  a  service  that  is  difficult,  under  the 

j6 


present  conditions,  for  home,  school,  or 
church  to  fulfil. 

It  is  obvious  that  any  such  policy  as 
this  will  immediately  bring  up  the  ques¬ 
tions — what  shall  be  the  relationship  of 
the  Association  to  home,  school,  church, 
etc.?  If  the  Association  is  supplemen¬ 
tary,  in  what  way  is  it  supplementary? 
Let  me  illustrate. 

It  is  commonly  believed  that  the  home 
is  not  fulfilling  its  full  function  in  the 
life  of  the  boy.  I  think  the  Association 
should  attempt  to  supplement,  though 
not  to  supplant,  the  home.  It  should  do 
for  the  boy  what  the  father  ought  to  do 
but  does  not  do.  But  I  think  it  ought 
to  go  further  and  try,  in  an  organized 
way,  to  get  the  father  to  do  more  for 
his  boy.  In  other  words,  the  Association 
will  be  a  father  to  the  boy,  and  will  do 
for  the  boy  what  perhaps  the  father  can¬ 
not  do,  but  will  also  seek  to  bring  vision 
to  the  father  and  will  even  go  so  far  as 
to  help  the  fathers  of  a  community  in 
their  boy  problems.  So  with  the  school. 
I  think  the  school  should  be  the  natural 
recreative  center  for  the  pupils  of  the 
school,  but  it  is  not  so,  and  until  there 
is  such  support  for  the  schools  that  this 
work  can  be  organized,  the  school  is  not 
likely  to  fulfil  this  function  adequately. 
The  Young  Men’s  Christian  Associa- 
.  17 


tion  in  the  country  community  can  sup¬ 
plement  the  school,  but  it  ought  also  to 
help  to  bring  the  school  to  function  fully 
and  properly.  If  the  school  is  defective 
in  reaching  boys  on  the  educational  side, 
the  Association  can  help  there. 

The  question  of  the  church  and  th<^ 
Sunday  school  presents  the  greatest 
difficulty,  and  yet  I  cannot  see  why  the 
same  principle  may  not  be  valid.  If 
these  agencies  can  do  for  the  boy  all 
that  needs  to  be  done  for  him  by  institu¬ 
tions  professing  the  development  of  reli¬ 
gion  as  their  chief  function,  there  will 
be  no  place  for  the  Association.  But  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  these  agencies  are  not 
doing  all  that  needs  doing  for  the  boy 
and  I  doubt  if  they  are  likely  to  do  so 
for  a  long  time  to  come.  They  ought, 
therefore,  to  welcome  the  Association 
as  an  ally. 

Our  agricultural  colleges  are  now 
reaching  out  to  the  country  boys  more 
particularly  through  boys’  agricultural 
clubs.  The  proper  correlation  of  the 
school  and  the  Association  and  the  agri¬ 
cultural  college  has  not  yet  been  stated, 
but  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  the 
school  is  the  normal  center  of  interest 
for  the  education  of  youth ;  that  the 
agricultural  college  is  the  fountain  of 
information  on  agricultural  matters ; 

18  • 


and  that  when  the  Association  steps  into 
this  work,  it  should  be  to  meet  a  sup¬ 
plementary  need. 

There  are  some  who  think  that  such 
organizations  as  the  county  farm  demon¬ 
stration  bureaus,  county  leagues  for 
rural  improvement,  and  county  federa¬ 
tions  for  rural  progress,  may  take  the 
place  of  the  rural  work  of  the  Associa¬ 
tions.  I  cannot  agree,  but  I  think  there 
ought  to  be  close  cooperation  between 
the  Associations  and  this  county  farm 
improvement  work. 

Why  may  not  the  Young  Men’s  Chris¬ 
tian  Association  serve  as  the  great  inte¬ 
grating  agency  in  the  rural  community? 
This  is  an  attractive  task  and  a  vital 
one.  Why  should  we  not  ask  the  Asso¬ 
ciation  to  make  it  its  supreme  task  ? 
Personally  I  do  not  believe  that  this  is 
the  function  of  the  Young  Men’s  Chris¬ 
tian  Association.  In  the  first  place, 
there  is  a  certain  sense  in  which  we  do 
not  need  an  integrating  agency.  Inte¬ 
gration  must  be  on  the  federal  or  repre¬ 
sentative  principle.  That  is,  no  existing 
institution  can  merge  into  itself  other 
institutions.  Indeed,  no  existing  institu¬ 
tion  can  be  the  core  of  a  system  of 
correlated  activity.  If  we  are  to  have 
a  real  integration  of  country  life  inter¬ 
ests,  it  must  be  by  the  voluntary  or 
19 


mutual  cooperation  of  the  agencies  in¬ 
volved  and  not  by  the  pulling  together 
of  these  agencies  under  the  leadership 
of  any  one  agency  that  dominates  them 
all. 

The  County  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  is  not  as  yet  a  universal 
organization.  Integration  should  go  on 
rapidly.  It  should  exist  as  soon  as  possi¬ 
ble  in  every  agricultural  county  and 
rural  community.  I  am  sure  the  Asso¬ 
ciation  is  to  grow,  but  I  do  not  believe 
it  will  grow  fast  enough  for  this  pur¬ 
pose.  I  think  that  if  any  institution  is 
to  take  a  leadership  in  coordinating  rural 
activities,  it  must  be  some  recognized 
central  voluntary  committee,  mutually 
established  through  the  cooperation  of 
all  the  agencies  concerned,  or  else  that 
the  Government  as  represented  in  the 
United  States  Department  of  Agricul¬ 
ture  or  in  the  extension  service  of  the 
state  agricultural  college,  should  take 
the  lead  in  stimulating  the  integrating 
process.  I  think,  however,  that  the 
county  committees  of  Young  Men’s 
Christian  Associations  may  often  be  the 
local  leaders  in  bringing  about  the  corre¬ 
lation  of  rural  activities  either  on  neigh¬ 
borhood  or  on  county  lines,  or  both. 

I  have  not  specified  concrete  tasks  for 
the  Association.  In  fact,  concrete  tasks, 


20 


while  always  the  final  achievement  and 
justification  of  social  effort,  gain  their 
value  from  their  intimate  relationship 
to  sound  theory  as  well  as  sound  method. 
They  are  the  fruitage  of  a  well-rooted 
tree.  I  have  tried  to  describe  the  tree 
that  will  bear  the  right  fruit.  The  fruit 
is  a  redeemed  rural  boyhood  and  young 
manhood.  Methods  of  growing  and 
ripening  this  fruit  may  and  will  change. 
These  methods  may  carry  the  Associa¬ 
tion  into  many  subsidiary  activities  and 
relationships.  But  the  one  task  to  which 
the  County  Work  must  forever  address 
itself,  and  of  which,  in  the  multiplicity 
of  practical  devices,  it  must  never  lose 
sight  for  one  instant,  is  to  reach  rural 
youth  effectively  with  the  Christian 
message. 

Lastly  let  me  indicate  my  conception 
of  the  ideal  County  Young  Men’s  Chris¬ 
tian  Association. 

1.  It  will  be  more  an  influence  than 
an  institution.  It  will  attempt  to  create 
an  atmosphere  rather  than  to  build  up 
an  elaborate  machinery. 

2.  In  so  far  as  it  has  an  institutional 
character,  this  will  lie  in  the  comrade¬ 
ship  of  multitudes  of  country  boys  and 
young  men.  The  band  or  group  spirit 
will  be  its  great  asset,  and  the  fraternal 
feeling  will  be  developed  for  high  ends. 


21 


3-  The  heart  of  this  enterprise  is  a 
virile  man,  a  rural  secretary,  backed  by 
a  strong  committee,  all  holding  a  clear 
conception  both  of  the  opportunities  and 
the  limitations  of  the  Association,  and 
whose  chief  function  is  so  to  influence 
boys  and  young  men,  that  there  will 
gradually  be  gathered  together  bands  of 
comrades  who  are  seeking  to  solve  their 
life  problems  on  the  highest  lines  and 
who  are  anxious  to  help  others  to  do  the 
same. 

4.  The  Association  will  supplement 
other  institutions  rather  than  seek  to 
become  itself  an  institution.  It  will  not 
only  supplement  the  school,  and  the 
home,  and  the  church,  and  the  grange, 
and  the  college,  and  the  county  demon¬ 
stration  work,  in  anything  that  seeks 
to  reach  rural  boys  and  young  men,  but 
it  will  do  k\\  it  can  to  help  those  institu¬ 
tions  to  a  larger  activity  in  order  that 
they  may  themselves  reach  boys  more 
adequately,  “function”  more  completely. 

5.  The  Association  will  hold  itself 
to  be  essentially  a  part  of  the  common 
church,  the  federated  church  if  you 
please,  at  work  for  the  purpose  of  reach¬ 
ing  boys. 

6.  This  means  a  temporary  function? 
Yes,  in  the  willingness  of  the  Associa¬ 
tion,  and,  in  fact,  its  desire  to  turn  over 


22 


tasks  to  primary  institutions  as  rapidly 
as  they  are  willing  to  assume  them ;  but 
actually  a  permanent  function  because, 
as  we  begin  to  realize  the  possibilities  of 
service  for  boys,  we  shall  see  the  need 
of  a  specialized  branch  of  country  church 
activity  on  behalf  of  boys  and  young 
men.  I  do  not  know  what  it  may  be 
called  fifty  years  from  now;  possibly  not 
the  Young  Men’s  Christian  Association, 
though  it  will  be  that.  For  just  as  soon 
as  the  country  churches  “find”  them¬ 
selves,  are  ready  to  take  that  leadership 
in  country  life  which  the  present  situa¬ 
tion  imperatively  demands,  are  prepared 
to  work  together  as  a  unit,  and  are  will¬ 
ing  to  sink  institutionalism  in  vital  reli¬ 
gious  service,  then  we  will  find  the 
churches  demanding  that  the  County 
Young  Men’s  Christian  Association 
shall  come  into  every  agricultural 
county  in  America. 

I  believe,  therefore,  in  a  permanent 
County  Young  Men’s  Christian  Associa¬ 
tion,  but  I  believe  that  it  will  find  its 
permanency  in  specialized  work,  in 
great  elasticity  of  method,  and  in  ever¬ 
lasting  appeal,  before  the  public  and  be¬ 
fore  the  boys  themselves,  to  the  power 
of  Christian  comradeship  in  building  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  into  both  individual 
and  community  life. 

23 


